April

We celebrated Maliya's birthday at school on the last day before Spring Break. I brought treats in and watched Maliya appear on the "Mrs. Dominguez Show." Seriously, the cutest class tradition ever! Mrs D used the 'microphone,' and asked Maliya questions. Then Maliya was able to choose three of her peers that could also ask her questions about herself for her to answer.

 Then everyone thought up complimentary sentences to tell about Maliya, and she got to use the pointer for them to practice reading aloud together.

 Maliya handed out the treats...

 Then each student was given a paper to write three nice sentence about Maliya, they stapled all the papers together and gave them to Maliya as a book. Seriously. So awesome!

We went to spend Conference Weekend (including Maliya's birthday!) up at Grandpa Myler's cabin. Unfortunately, there was still a lot more ice on the hills than we were expecting, so our van couldn't make it there. :(

Luckily, Grandma Lisa saved us by letting us crash at her new cabin in Midway. Yay! We spent Friday night and most of Saturday there, and came home before Sunday. The kids enjoyed pretending these light rays were shooting out of their hands and toes!

 We caught a skunk! Actually, we had nothing to do with it, other than walking around the property to check the traps...The kids fell in love and asked if we could keep it. Uhh...that would be a big, emphatic NO!

 Fun with empty storage spaces...

 In between sessions, we went at played at the park in Heber. So fun!

Conference: Larger than life!

 We had prepared for a totally different "cabin" experience than what we got, and we didn't have the things we needed to stay another day at the different cabin. So, we came home and celebrated Maliya's birthday here. She wanted to open her presents in the front yard. Why not? It was a gorgeous weekend! Her gifts included a new scripture case (to go with her baptism gift from Grandma Topham of a new set of scriptures!), new church clothes, and a Matilda and Pippi Longstockings DVD combo pack.

Maliya got a yin and yang cake. We had made cinnamon rolls for conference breakfast and used up too much of the frosting...we didn't have enough to cover the whole cake. Leave it to Brian to make a fun joke out of it!

 Since we got two round cakes, Brian took the kids to Smith's later and got more frosting, but the Yin and Yang joke remained!

 Thanksgiving Point!

 Hayden does not like wind...or...even slight breezes. He puts his hands up on his neck like this to shield it from the wind.

 When we read scriptures at night, Maliya is always so excited to read her verse by herself, instead of just repeating after us. While Maliya is so intently following along on the scripture text, there's Katie in the background, pretending to do Elsa's make up...

 We Kyla stay with us for a few days while her parents were out of town. That girl is a great artist! The girls all drew deer in sidewalk chalk. Kyla's:

 Maliya's (love the white flower!):

 And Rachel's colorful deer:

 We went to the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point

 This umbrella tree was super fun!

We hired someone to build us a shed! They got it done in one afternoon. Sweet! The next Saturday, Brian went to work and built this sweet loft into it. He even stapled down some carpet in the loft!

 Shayna sent us this great picture from her wedding. We were FREEZING!

 Now that Maliya is 8, she gets to go to Achievement Days! They had an awesome pinewood derby activity. She and Brian had fun making it together.

 This boy...

 The kids school held a Daddy Daughter Dance. So cute!

 Hayden wanted in on this "pictures with Dad" action! ...He was not happy when Dad took Maliya and Rachel on a ride in the car and NOT HIM!

 They had a fun photo booth!

 Uncle Brandon described Maliya as a high school girl, at the dance: strutting around with her "posse," not wanting anything to do with her relatives...(insert eye roll here). Rachel, on the other hand, was sure to keep her Dad with her and include him in whatever her friends wanted to do.
Rachel stole her friends glasses, while at the dance.

 She showed him the Buddy Bench...

 Meanwhile, at home, we attended a movie at the "theater."

Maliya got a slip n slide in the mail for her birthday!

 ...along with a super cute new outfit, from Grandma Lisa.

Hayden, using a toothpick and saying "cheese."

 Pretending to play video games.

Brian got his keys royally tangled, one day. They were hard enough to undo, that he thought it was picture worthy.

 Hayden stole Katie's clothes one day. He was NOT happy when I made him change! Oh, dear.

 Maliya did a report on Bottlenose Dolphins at school. Here she is pretending to be one!

 Hayden tried out the "big kid" swings!

 "Who, me?"

 Hangin' with his dad.

 Maliya and Rachel got their "summer hair cuts."

 These two LOVE watching movies on the ipad!

 This kid is LOVING his little balance bike!

He won't sit on the seat. He just stands and walks around with it!

 The Big Pinewood Derby!

Whew! What a FUN month!